SHOCK VAUXHALL MOTORS FC MANAGER APPOINTMENT
There was general shock throughout the UK today as Sir Alan Sugar; British entrepreneur, Labour Lord and TV personality was hired as manager of non-league football club Vauxhall Motors. Sir Alan is usually the one doing the hiring and firing but today roles were reversed as the chairman of Vauxhall Motors FC was reported to have told Sir Alan two simple words "You're hired."
Several different reports have sprung up with it being anybodies guess as to why Sir Alan Sugar would take on such an unusual and badly paid job on the opposite side of the UK to the area where he lives with his wife of 42 years; Lady Ann Sugar. Some pundits both in football and politics have suggested that Sugar has taken on the job as a political stunt to gain popularity with the public prior to an election that is expected to be called early next year. The Lord already has an annual hit TV show; the apprentice, but a new series of this is not expected until 2011 now because the BBC do not want to show bias towards the Labour party in the run up to an election. Sugar is a labour minister and the BBC trust deemed it to be inappropriate for such a figure to be in the public eye before the 2009 or 2010 general election which has not yet been announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Sugar is only earning £350p/w at the club and so money was clearly not on Sir Alan's mind when he agreed to be manager. He has bought a small amount of Vauxhall Motors shares recently (reportedly between 1% and 2%) and has been a friend of Tony Woodley (the head of the Unite union and director of football at Vauxhall Motors) for a long time. Tony Woodley reportedly had talks with Sugar about the possibility of him becoming manager a few months ago and Woodley apparently passed on his recommendation as to who should be manager to club chairman Alan Bartlam who proceeded to hire Sir Alan in this extraordinary manner for this token fee.
Vauxhall Motors F.C. play in the Blue Square Conference North and are expected to be a strong candidate for relegation this season so Tottenham fan Sugar will certainly have to pull his finger out if he wants his club playing conference football next season as well. Sugar was Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur for 10 years but was dogged for the whole decade by the media and by fans. He sacked 6 managers in 10 years and abused players prompting many managers and players to publicly complain about him. Sir Alan called his time at Tottenham "a complete waste of life" and will be hoping his time at Vauxhall Motors F.C. is far more enjoyable. He will almost certainly be hard to please as manager and if the players have any sense they will try and get into his good books before it is too late and they find themselves paying for a taxi home. The players at the club are all part timers and most of them are either employees at the Vauxhall Motors factory or live and work locally somewhere else. Sir Alan is known to not be a great fan of foreign footballers but this will not stop him buying abroad to get a bargain as if there is something he likes a lot, it is cold, hard cash as his bank balance of £830 million will testify. He has said in a press statement that he will be looking to bring great success to the club although with the club in a poor league with poor finances he has said he will remain realistic. He has said that at the age of 63 he does not expect champions league football before he retires but he will try his very best to raise this club to great heights.
Sugar recently announced he will be updating a blog on an internet site every now and then and that he hopes many people will follow him into the unknown territory of non-league football as he sets off in the hope that he will drive Vauxhall Motors F.C. to success!
